Planning commission studies Vision 2050 land-use update; housing East of PCH and SB 79 flagged as key issues

El Segundo planning staff and consultant MIG led a study session on Oct. 9 to begin shaping the city’s Vision 2050 land-use element update, presenting background research, public-engagement findings and preliminary vision statements and guiding principles.

Laura Stetson of MIG said the city is updating only the land-use element of the general plan and presented six months of background work including a market analysis, mobility analysis and a public engagement program that the consultant team said included community leadership interviews, focus groups and an open-house workshop. Stetson said the online questionnaire for the project drew roughly 860 responses, which staff described as a strong response for a city the size of El Segundo.

Consultants and staff summarized key findings: El Segundo’s resident population is about 13,000; more households rent than own (staff cited about 57% renters and 43% owners); the city has a very high jobs-to-housing ratio and roughly 70,000 people commute into the city daily. The team told commissioners that more than half of households are cost-burdened (paying more than 30% of income for housing), with about 30% described as extremely cost-burdened (paying more than 50%). The team also presented an interactive “story map” summarizing existing conditions including zoning, specific plans, overlays and state pollution-burden mapping…